The Fall of Humanity
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: Buffy and her longtime friend Rime are in Atlanta when the Infection first break out. After two months Buffy comes across a small group of survivors on a supply run who turn out to have a camp outside the city. Less than a week later the camp is overrun by walkers and Buffy decides it's time for everyone to learn how to defend themselves without guns. *This is the rewrite.*
1. The Veneer of Society

It had been 26 days since the first online report about the dead coming back to 'life' somehow, or rather it had been 26 days since the recently dead got back up again and began trying to eat any and all humans and animals they could get their teeth into. It was a small mercy that at least the animals didn't turn; if they had turned as well then humanity would've been even more doomed than it already was.

The first time Buffy had heard of the dead getting back up again in a non-vampire setting was on an internet forum where people who knew about the less than human side of the night world would post and keep each other updated on the latest news regarding vampires and demons. The website was surprisingly informative and as a bonus it also had an easy and effective search engine. It had been Tara who had shown her the website/forum back in college, and she had also taught her how to navigate it.

She'd been a little startled to read an entry on 'Vampire Slayer, The'. The entry listed the Slayer Prophecy, the common powers of a Slayer, their mission, how the Council of Watchers acquired Potentials (usually kidnapping of children), how they were trained and raised, some vague and incomplete information about the Cruciamentum (which turned out to actually be called 'Tento di Cruciamentum' and translated to 'I try to torment'), and an incomplete list of Slayers from about 1942 and until the present day.

While both she and Faith were listed on the website they were thankfully not listed by name, and were instead referred to as the 'Sunnydale Slayer' and the 'Boston Slayer' to protect their identities. It was followed by a lot of speculation as to how the Slayer Line had been split, but thankfully no concrete or correct information. Her own entry had a list of her accomplishments, the name of her past Watchers (Merrick and Wesley) and a note about Giles but his name was left out, and her territories (LA and Sunnydale). There were also some vague references to her friends, but, again, nothing concrete in order to protect them.

More than a decade later and it had quite literally been a lifesaver as it had given her a slight advanced warning about the walking dead. Someone, somewhere had seen one of the first walkers and reported it online. It hadn't been enough to stop it or really warn anyone properly, but she had forwarded the message to certain people she kept in contact with - along with information about her own whereabouts and who she was with. It wasn't much, and they, like her, knew her location could change at any time and she would most likely be long gone by the time anyone got there. Still, a general area was better than nothing, and some of them had even been able to reply with the pertinent information regarding their own positions before they lost electricity.

A few of her contacts had even been close enough that there was a small chance they could meet up or run into each other somewhere, but she and Rime had decided to deliberately stay inside the Atlanta city limits and help the survivors there rather than follow the exodus out into the countryside. As it had turned out that decision could've easily cost them their lives, but neither regretted it. They were both in the 'saving people' business, even if it was on different sides of it.

It was 20 days since life as Buffy knew it had ended completely. The military had shown up in their tanks and their armored vehicles, and began randomly shooting people whether they appeared to be sick or not. At first they had created safe zones with tall fences and around the clock guards in various parts of the city, but it didn't take long for them to give up. Just as suddenly as they had showed up they had disappeared. They had left behind more than their share of destroyed families; parents who had been separated from their children, friends and neighbours who were left searching for their loved ones. None of which accounted for all the people who had witnessed the military shoot and kill their family and friends like they were rabid dogs who needed to be put down, despite not having been bitten or even scratched.

Many houses, buildings, and other structures were in ruins or partially destroyed by the bombs and other heavy artillery. The point had no doubt been to try to annihilate the hungry corpses, but that did not change the fact that they had killed thousands of the living in the process. When she had first seen the camouflage painted helicopters flying over the areas where large groups of the walking dead had congregated and began dropping bombs into the hordes, a memory had flashed in front of her eyes of Riley trying to defend what he collateral damage during the mess with Adam. The recollection had not helped her mood in the slightest.

Not that Buffy or Rime cared about the armed forces, but Buffy's memory of her ex-boyfriend was neither the first nor the last time she remembered the Initiative in less than positive situations during the initial outbreak. It wouldn't have been so bad if the military had come to actually protect them instead of trying to kill off what was left of humanity. But it didn't matter anymore; they were gone and so were pretty much everyone else as well.

In the days and weeks that followed Buffy had thanked her lucky star that she had been with Rime when the infection first began spreading. The two of them had been friends for years when everything literally began shambling its way toward hell on Earth. And no, she would at no point get over the fact that Rime's mother, Ulva, had been born in a small, Norwegian village called Hell over a millennia ago. It was just one of those things.

In fact during one of their conversations Buffy had realized that Rime was only a decade or two older than Anya had been, even if Rime didn't know exactly which year she had been born in. She did however know the approximate year her mother had been born and roughly how old Ulva had been when she had given birth to Rime.

Trying to figure out if the two of them had ever met had gotten her nowhere though. As Rime had pointed out she had spent the first few centuries of her life in what was now known as Norway, while Buffy's deceased friend had been Swedish and after she had become a Vengeance Demon she had spent her life causing as much death and destruction as she possibly could all over the whole world while still having a good time. Rime on the other hand preferred peace and quiet. Which was rather contrary to Buffy's brutal and at least partially uncontrolled life, but the two of them had managed to find a way to balance their lives together.

A part of Buffy was grateful that her old friends from Sunnydale were dead, thankful that they didn't live long enough to see the apocalypse actually happen, but at the same time she missed them terribly. She missed the young, happy, and slightly spazzy girl Willow had been when Buffy first transferred to Sunnydale High. She missed the girl who couldn't even take a sip of coffee without babbling a mile a minute. She didn't miss the young woman who had gotten more and more manipulative over the years and who had then gotten addicted to magic.

She missed Xander, back when he was still her friend and the group's comic relief. She missed the young man who tried to cheer her up with stupid and inane things, just to make her laugh or roll her eyes at him in amusement. She missed who he was before he began using her own Calling against her, before he expected her to be everywhere and do everything while still being able to be relaxed and happy.

She also missed Giles and his old, dusty books. She missed how he would always consult them when she had a Slayer Dream or when something strange happened during patrol. She missed how he would remove his glasses and clean them whenever she or one of the others would do something he just did not want to see, or that he would get in trouble for if he knew about it.

When it came down to it Buffy was both thankful, relieved, and sad that none of them were here with her at the end of the world. It would've been a major benefit to have someone else around who understood what the apocalypse meant, even if it wasn't demonic as far as she could tell. None of the walkers gave off a demonic vibe, or even the slightest sense of magic. Something which was strange in and off itself as it meant that they were not zombies, despite the obvious similarity. Instead it felt like something in between a sick, nearly dead human, a corpse, and a void.

Out of everyone she had known in Sunnydale Faith had lasted the longest, which was ironic on so many different levels. As she had told Buffy on several occasions she wanted to she had gone out in a blaze of glory. A large assembly of demons, vampires, and werewolves had teamed up and decided to attack a small town en masse. Faith had had a Slayer Dream and called in reinforcements, but because Buffy had been on the other side of the country at the time she had been left out of it.

Afterwards Buffy had received a box with some of Faith's personal effects, including the knife she had gotten from the Mayor. There had also been a letter which explained what had happened and why Buffy had gotten the things she did. Even now she had no idea who had sent it or how they knew where she had been staying at the time. Regardless, she was pleased to have gotten it, and even more happy that Faith hadn't been travelling alone as she'd thought.

Faith's knife was currently strapped to her thigh, where she'd kept it since she realized that there were walkers out to eat people. It was her go-to weapon for close-up kills, while she used either the Scythe or a katana if she had the space to move properly.

At the moment Buffy and Rime were squatting, if it could still be called that given the situation, in an abandoned furniture store in Atlanta, GA. Mainly because it had been free of walkers and a human presence, and the beds there were both amazingly comfortable and on the second floor so they were less visible to both the living and the dead. At first they had tried to get to one of the hotels, motels, or inns which were littered all over the city, but they had all invariably been crawling with either walkers, the living, or a combination of both.

Their fellow survivors had not been willing to let them in in case they were infected. It was an understandable reaction, but it hadn't hurt any less. It was a woeful state of affairs when people were unwilling to take in a couple of attractive young women. Still, they had opted not to leave the city right away, but instead try and find as much food, medicine, and other essentials as possible before heading out into the countryside to try and find something more permanent. Because who knew how long it would take before they could enter another big city without risking being swarmed by a huge horde of walkers.

In between the scavenging they were looking for small groups of survivors or single survivors, anyone who were alive and at least semi-friendly. Sometimes they were allowed to help, but most of the time they ran and hid at the smallest hint of anyone coming near them. It didn't take them long not to take offense at this behaviour. The few people who didn't run away from the two women were given a little food, some water, and first aid if they needed it. People were frightened, and avoiding possible enemies was an effective way to stay alive.

The two apparently young women complimented each other well; Buffy was the protector, the one who mainly fought both the hostile and/or desperate humans they came across and the walking dead who tried to eat them. On increasingly rarer occasions she was the one who had to kill animals who attacked them, mainly starving dogs. She was also the one who did the heavy lifting; she put up barricades to block out anyone from getting to wherever they were staying at any given time, and likewise the one who removed barricades - both their own and those made by others.

Rime on the other hand was a healer, literally. She wasn't a witch, but rather a part-human. Early on, when the government was still trying to tell everyone they had things under control, Rime had tried to heal several people using her healing ability. Unfortunately it had turned out that the infection was immune to her power and instead drained her. Each time it had taken her days to recover fully. After the third attempt Buffy had put her foot down and demanded she stop trying. There were others, who had not been scratched or bitten, who could actually survive if she helped them.

Years ago Rime had told Buffy that her mother had been entirely human, but her father, Arolin, was one of what she called the 'Mountain Nation'. They lived inside the Norwegian mountains and that was where Rime had been born and raised. She had been young and curious however, and had desired to see the world outside the confines of the mountains. It was this curiosity which had led her to America centuries later.

Outside the building they heard a herd of walkers groaning as they shambled by as someone, clearly alive, at least for a little while longer, screamed in fear and pain before it was abruptly cut off. Both women closed their eyes and bowed their head, body tense with the beginnings of adrenaline they would not be able to release as it was too late for the person outside. Another life was needlessly lost to the walking dead, someone else they were unable to save.


	2. Supply Run

Thank you to those who have reviewed both the original story and this rewrite, it is very much appropriated!

:::-:::

There had been no warnings. No vague and confusing Slayer Dreams, no visions of impending doom, no premonitions of what was to come. Nothing. Just a gut feeling that told her something bad was coming and that she needed to be in Atlanta when it did. Then she had read about the first encounter with what appeared to be a zombie on the internet forum. The day after there had been another five sightings, and then everything went downhill fast.

It was the 32nd day after the apocalypse had started, and Buffy and Rime were still in Atlanta. In the month or so since the world had ended they had saved several dozen people, only for them to insist on getting out of the city right away. The friendlier ones had gotten a tin can each with some kind of food and a bottle of water or some other kind of liquid to bring with them on their journey. Not that they blamed any of them for wanting to get away from the increasingly large herds inside the city, but Buffy still had this feeling that she had to stay. At least for now.

Rime, who didn't have to be anywhere in particular, had chosen to stay with her friend despite the increasing danger. Somewhere out there she had a grown son, but without knowing where he had been when the outbreak began she had no chance of finding him. When it had been clear that the walking dead were going to take over control of the world as is, she had attempted to contact him but had been unable to establish contact. In the end all she had been able to do was leave a message on his voicemail, in addition to sending a text message with her whereabouts at the time, and hoping he would get at least one of them. Before moving on she had given a short prayer to the goddess, praying for his safety and well-being.

Today they were raiding a pharmacy a few blocks away from their base, and as far as they knew it was more or less untouched as it was located on a side street. Rime had seen it on one of their earlier runs, and it had been marked down on their list of places they needed to visit and ransack for anything helpful. That, however, did not mean they had any intention of going in blind. Chances were that there would be walkers shambling around nearby hoping for a snack, and most likely at least a couple of starving ones inside.

Buffy shot her companion a quick look; Rime was dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans, a semi-clean blue-grey tank top, and solid, black army boots. Her long, naturally snow white hair was in a practical braid which reached halfway down her backside. Before she had usually braided it into some kind of fancy and intricate hairstyle, a long time habit from her childhood inside the Norwegian mountains with her father's people, but the new world order had forced her to become more pragmatic. She'd kept it that way since the panic first broke out so it wouldn't get stuck on anything, and so it would be more difficult for humans or walkers to grab it.

Buffy herself was dressed in black leather pants, a light pink tank top with My Little Pony on the front, and the same kind of solid, black army boots. Her own blonde locks hung loose around her shoulders. Both of them had a brown leather backpack on their back.

As they approached the building Rime used her superior height, 6'2" without shoes, to look over a wall separating a small parking space from the one next to it. A quick, silent nod and they were over the wall and walking quickly towards a side door. Another few glances around their immediate area to make sure neither the living nor the dead were around or paying attention to them, and Buffy used her Slayer strength to break the lock on the door and push it inwards.

Once inside Buffy promptly gave the rectangular room a quick overview ensuring there were no immediate dangers of any kind, before she gave a second more thorough look making sure she hadn't missed anything the first time. Thankfully there were no walkers inside the room, no lurkers hiding behind the shelves nor were there any crawlers hiding below eye-level.

During her survey she also noted another two doors; the main entrance consisting of two sliding glass doors showing a parking space and a road beyond that, and there was what appeared to be a blue door beside one of the shelves along the back wall. The latter door most likely led to the offices, changing rooms, the break room, and so on.

When her body language relaxed slightly Rime whispered "Left" behind her.

"Right. Meet you in the middle, by the counter."

While Rime began her 'shopping' on their current side of the store, Buffy crossed the room to the opposite side and started working her way towards the middle from there. With her magically expanded backpack slung over her left wrist for easy access and an unsheathed machete on a strap around her right wrist in case of any surprises, she began collecting whatever she thought might become beneficial.

Before they left the furniture store Rime had drummed the names of various especially needed things into her head, making sure she understood they were a priority. However those were for a little later, the things out in the public area were of the over the counter variety and were more easily accessible. The good stuff was all locked in the back.

All the while she kept a wary eye on on both the door they had entered through and the second door that clearly lead towards the back. The main entrance was kept in her peripheral view as much as possible, just in case someone outside noticed movement and decided to investigate. A human with something heavy or a large enough herd could easily break through it if they were determined.

Buffy found vitamins, band-aids (regular and children's), bandages of various shapes and sizes, first aid kits - also in several different sizes, antibiotic ointment, prenatal vitamins, pregnancy tests, sunscreen, aloe vera, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and a number of other things which might or might not come in useful. She couldn't get pregnant, or get STD's for that matter, and even if she could she hadn't had a lover in over a year so those were not for her. It was more of a safety precaution; sooner or later they would meet up with and join a group, and as sex was one of the most natural things in existence someone was bound to end up pregnant at some point.

As she walked along the rows and picked bottles and boxes off the shelves, she was listening intently to everything around her. On interchangeable turns she looked down along the floor checking for crawlers and around her in all directions in case there were lurkers or something else unfortunate. Buffy always knew where Rime was, she kept an ear out for any sounds out of the ordinary, and the tell-tale sounds of shuffling feet and the accompanying groaning was always there now now. It had become the new world order's version of background noise, only much, much more dangerous. There was at least one walker behind the second, blue door. Probably two.

In what felt like no time the two women met up by the counter, and in what had become the norm in the post-apocalyptic world, they gave each other a quick visual check for bites, scratches, or other injuries.

"I found antibiotics, painkillers, bandages, and most of the other things I was hoping for, but we still need to go through the back room."

Buffy simply nodded. They had a well filled storage of necessities both back at the furniture store and inside their incredibly practical backpacks, but they would always need more of everything. And everything had suddenly gotten in very limited supply. A month of scavenging for anything and everything had gotten them a lot more than they had expected, but they were not the only survivors in the city and the other groups had more mouths to feed. Regardless of how they looked at it the two of them had still gotten less than they would need in the long run.

"There's one, likely two walkers behind the back door." She turned towards the blue door before she turned her head towards the other woman. "Stay here while I clear the way."

It wasn't that Rime couldn't fight or that Buffy thought her weak, but her Slayer instincts had always told her to protect people and those instincts had kicked into high gear after most of humanity went from being prey who needed to be protected to a mass of mindless predators. The older woman had actually taught her some long-forgotten tricks to sword fighting which had come in very handy.

A silent nod and she picked up her pace until she stood before the normal looking blue door. The sound of shuffling feet were a little louder back here. A quick twist of the handle and she was inside, Faith's knife in one hand and a sharp wooden stake in the other. The sound of the door being forcefully opened alerted the walkers inside and they greeted her with loud groans as they began moving towards her as fast as they could. Which wasn't all that fast as they appeared to have been stuck inside for most of the last month.

A swift look around the room revealed two adult walkers; a middle aged man with salt and pepper hair, and a fit physique, and a twenty-something woman with waist-long copper red hair. A quick strike with the knife to number one's forehead, and he was permanently down. The second one got a stake between the eyes, before she was surprised by a third one. A child. A small black girl of about six years, with thin braids all over her head, and a face that would've promised beauty had she lived long enough.

Buffy bit her teeth together and plunged the knife into the girl's head before she could convince herself not to. She hated seeing dead children, and with her currently being in a big city it meant she had on occasion come across herds consisting of mostly children or teenagers. Logically they had probably come from nearby schools or kindergartens, but it was a thought she kept trying not to think of. In between her experiences as the Slayer and her imagination there were too many ways for her to imagine how they were killed, and there were way too many child and teenage walkers in Atlanta for her peace of mind.

After moving the three corpses out of the way she called her friend inside and they went through the back storage before they left as quickly as they had arrived. Making their way back to their base while the sun was out.

The walkers didn't care if it was light or dark, all that mattered to them was their insatiable hunger and the humans who could temporarily feed it, but Buffy had spent nearly two decades knowing that the most dangerous things usually came out to play after dark. And that habit was hard to break, so that meant supply runs usually happened during daylight hours. Unless she went out on her own.

Buffy was the Slayer, or rather a Slayer. It meant her life was a violent one, full of blood and dust and nightmares becoming all too real. Seeking out danger was almost as instinctive as breathing. For some reason she could not explain the vampires had turned into some kind of hybrid vampire/walker creature. They'd had all the weaknesses and strengths of a vampire, just a lot dumber and their speed was that of a average living human. Luckily they had still gone poof when she had staked or beheaded them, but after the first week she had neither seen, nor heard, or even sensed a single vampire or demon. It kinda freaked her out. Where had they all gone? Did they die or get dusted somehow? Did they take a magical portal somewhere?

All the demons and part-humans couldn't be gone or she and Rime would've been gone as well, but so far they had not run into anyone else despite the crowds. It was something to think about for another day.

Back at the furniture store they tallied their loot. They had gotten a lot of the much-needed medicine they had been looking for, and in addition they had gotten six sealed bottles of water, three sealed bottles of soda, some boxes of spice, and four cans of hermetic soup. Neither had any idea why there was soup at a pharmacy, but they didn't care. It was food and like everything else they needed more of it.

All in all their supply run into the more walkers infested areas had been successful.


	3. And the Horse You Rode In On

It was 60 days, or about two months, since the world had fallen into total chaos and anarchy. The amount of living human beings were quickly dwindling as evidenced by the increasingly larger herds roaming the streets. Atlanta was littered with burned out buildings, buses, and cars. Windows were smashed, shops were looted for nearly anything even remotely useful. Food of any kind was more and more difficult to find, and liquids, especially water, was worth more than gold and diamonds had ever been.

While Buffy was sitting on a fence just watching a large group of walkers ambling around aimlessly, she was debating with herself if it was worth the risk to try to thin it out by chopping off the heads of those on the outer edges of the group, or if that would just be inviting trouble both for herself and anyone who might be nearby. It had become a common pastime for her, along with being a diversion and a way for her to use her Slayer abilities now that all the vampires and demons seemed to have gone poof. Rime called it an obsession, and she was probably at least partially right about that.

Suddenly an odd, vaguely unfamiliar noise reached her ears. It sounded suspiciously like _click-clack, click-clack_. She frowned as she lifted her head and turned it to both sides, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound before she got up, jumped off the fence, and walked a couple of streets over to see an unexpected sight; a man was riding on a horse, wearing a sheriff's uniform, including a sheriff's hat. A cursory sweep over the surrounding area didn't reveal anyone else, at least no one with a pulse.

Buffy decided to follow the man at a safe distance, if for no other reason than to save him from his own stupidity. Riding into a walker infested city on a horse, _really_?! What was he thinking? Or maybe the question was why _wasn't_ he thinking? Acquiring a horse was actually a good idea since both gas and diesel were in incredibly limited supply now, and neither cars nor the roads would last forever. Horses on the other hand had existed for centuries and millennia before that, and they would probably continue to exist unless they all got eaten. Still, a little common sense would've been appreciated, especially since the animal was unlikely to survive an encounter with the hungry hordes. The man on the other hand had a little better chance of getting out of this alive, maybe.

Rime was fortunately safe back at the furniture store, and would not go anywhere else until she got back. The woman was brave but her self-preservation instincts were thankfully in good working order, most of the time. Not that Buffy had any room to talk; she regularly took risks she would've yelled at anyone else for even thinking about. But then again, she was a Slayer, which few others could claim, and that meant that taking dangerous risks were nothing new to her. It was just a way of life.

The man on the horse, however, read as completely human according to her Slaydar. Which on one side was a good thing, because no demons? Definitely a good thing. On the other, it was bad for him because it meant he probably only had the guns on his back to defend himself with, and that was very bad. Noise attracted the walkers, especially gunshots as they were both sharp and loud, but also because there were many large groups of walkers shambling around nearby looking for dinner. A single shot and all the walkers within hearing distance would shamble their way towards the precipitous sound.

Unsurprisingly it didn't take long for him to get himself nearly encircled by the starving corpses, but at the last minute he managed to escape under an abandoned tank which had conveniently been left behind by the military. The horse wasn't as lucky and many of the walkers feasted on the animal as it was dying. Buffy was grateful when it disappeared beneath the herd and she was unable to see anymore. Sadly it didn't mute the sound of chewing and the ripping of flesh, nor did it stop her from hearing the anguished neighing the animal made before it finally became blissfully silent. It was one occasion when having enhanced supernatural hearing was definitely a bad thing.

Apparently there was a hatch of some kind underneath the military vehicle as she heard the sound of the man scrambling upwards and then a thud of something being slammed in place before all she could really hear was the sound of his heavy breathing. The next thing she heard was another gunshot, this time clearly from the inside of the tank, before it went silent again. The educated guess was that there had been a walker left inside the armored vehicle and it had made an attempt to bite the newly arrived human.

A few minutes after that his head and upper body popped up from the hatch on top of the tank. The man surveyed the immediate area, clearly without noticing Buffy, before the approaching walkers with enough muscle memory to climb came at him. He quickly ducked down again, bringing the top hatch with him and a _click_ was heard as he locked it.

Sometime later the latch at the top of the tank suddenly opened again and the sheriff quickly climbed out and made a run for it. Further back from the feeding frenzy Buffy didn't bother to hold back her eye roll as she began running, adding Slayer speed to catch up, dodging walkers and using the Scythe to cut the top of the head off of the ones she couldn't avoid. Now was not the time to ensure a large drop in the undead population. Stupid males and their stupid need to do stupidly heroic things. The sheriff made a right down a side street, firing into the walkers when they came to close to him.

Suddenly she heard another man exclaim, "Whoa, not dead! Not dead! Come on, come on!" Buffy silently chastised herself for not paying enough attention to notice there was another living, breathing person up ahead. That could potentially have gotten the man killed and her hurt. Buffy pushed the thought out of her mind, along with the mental image of Rime scolding her for nearly getting herself injured.

Then her mind switched gears. _Huh_ , it sounded like there was some kind of plan involved in this madness after all, even if it seemed to be a flimsy one. She could relate to those. Buffy moved a little faster, quickly stabbing and slicing at the dead trying to close her in, and then she was in the small alley the two men had run down and she saw them. They were climbing up a fire escape as fast as they could manage, and the narrow street below them was promptly being filled up with hungry corpses.

She made a split second decision and took a running leap up on a trashcan, jumped on various things which were standing around the alley, including a few walkers, before she made the final jump onto the fire escape's cage. It would've been impossible for her to get to the actual ladder from street level due to all the walkers crowding around the lower part of the fire escape ladder trying to reach the two fleeing men. After landing on the lower part of the cage she promptly grabbed the bar of the next one and used it to boost herself up so the grabby hands below couldn't get to her. Once she was standing again she snaked herself through the vertical bars, the apocalypse diet had made her already thin frame even smaller, and she carefully got first one foot on the ladder and then then other. Then she was climbing up towards the sheriff and his pseudo rescuer. Above her they were staring in shock at her from a landing about a third of the way up the building.

When she finally put first one foot and then the other on the landing decisively, she stood up and smiled brightly at the two stunned men and said in her best air-headed cheerleader voice, "Hi!" And then laughed inwardly as their jaws literally dropped open.

Buffy bit down on her laughter. She knew full well that she looked the part of a stereotypical dumb blonde, especially when she made an effort to the play the part. There was just something about the society seeing an attractive blonde woman which made them place her in the 'lowered intelligence' box, and then refusing to change their minds. Of course, she had used this ignorance against both people and vampires and demons in the past to great effect. It wasn't her fault that they allowed someone's hair color to do their judgement for them.

While she was still wearing black leather pants and black combat boots, her shirt was a bright pink t-shirt with several pink Care Bears printed on the front. To make matters worse, or better - depending on your point of view - her blonde hair was in twin braids. It made her look like she was in her mid teens, or late teens at the most. Had it been pre-apocalypse then at least the added make-up would've made her look like she was in her late teens to early twenties.

According to Rime it was her Apocalypse Barbie look, or if she was in a bad mood - her Apocalypse Lolita/Baby Prostitute look. The last one had been coined when she'd found some make-up and had applied it a little too generously. It hadn't helped that she'd used the reflection in a partially broken window as a mirror since she didn't have access to a real mirror at the time.

The twenty-something Asian guy recovered his voice first. "Hey." Buffy rewarded him with a second sunny smile that he needed another few moments to recover from. "Where did you come from? There were no one else out by the tank or nearby.

"Oh." She giggled as she continued her play-acting. "I was, like, in a side street when I, like, heard a gunshot and, like, went to investigate. When I, like, got there. He," she pointed needlessly at the man who had introduced himself as Rick Grimes to the kid while she had been climbing, "was running like a madman down the street, shooting the dead people, and, like, out of nowhere you, like, jumped out and both of you started running and then, like Batman, you began climbing up here. It was like an action sequence in an action movie!" Buffy's smile at the end was bright enough to blind the sun, while she winced inwardly at the overuse of teenage slang and the number of times she's managed to slip 'like' into that short explanation.

Officer Not-So-Friendly didn't seem to buy her act though, or at least not as much as the Asian kid, who had yet to introduce himself because he had seen her before he had managed to reply to the sheriff. So in an effort to divert a little attention from herself, she decided Rick had had the right idea and stuck her hand out.

"I'm Buffy, by the way." Her name was so not helping her image in the slightest, but in an effort to correct her own over enthusiastic first impression she toned down her smile a little.

"G-Glenn. My name is Glenn. Rhee. Nice to meet you." Apparently her name was uncommon enough that he sort-of managed to concentrate and also to remember his manners, but before Glenn could introduce his new friend, the other man reached out his own hand and shook hers.

"Rick Grimes." She noted absently that he had a nice, firm handshake. But before he could get another word in edgewise, Buffy decided to move things along. Their little ledge was too exposed in her opinion, and the alley below was now packed with walkers trying to get to them. The only reasons they were not either up on the ledge already or climbing the ladder to get there was that they neither had the motor skills needed nor did they have enough space to move properly.

"Not to be, like, rude or anything, but shouldn't we, like, be somewhere less visible?" She waved a hand down towards the groaning horde below them for emphasis. That got them moving, and after a short argument Glenn went first since he knew the building, he was followed by Rick, and finally Buffy brought up the rear.

The latter two-thirds of the fire escape ladder didn't have a cage, and after giving it, the distance up to the rooftop, and the distance down to the street and the walkers occupying it a long look. Glenn commented, "Oh no. The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy."

Next thing she knew Glenn began climbing the ladder up towards the roof. As soon as he was far enough up Rick began climbing after giving Buffy a concerned look, and finally Buffy herself began the task of climbing vertically up the side of a building. It was a good thing she didn't have any problems with heights or she would've been in so much trouble right now.


	4. Showdown

This chapter takes place during the Walking Dead episode "Guts" (01x02). This is a merged and expanded version of the 'Watch the Fall of Humanity' chapter 5 (Guns and Gunshots), chapter 6 (Handcuffs), and chapter 7 (Travel Arrangements).

There wasn't a whole lot of talking while they climbed the rest of the way up to the roof and then walked across several rooftops, through one building, and down an outdoor staircase. As they were half-running down the stairs Glenn radioed someone in his group to warn them he was coming back, but that he was bringing back a couple of guests.

Down in the alley there were four walkers shambling around. Buffy surveyed the small area and its undead occupants before she put on a burst of speed. Across the courtyard and to their right a door opened suddenly and two people in improvised riot gear and wielding baseball bats came running out. By the time the two new people had managed more than a few steps outside the door she had already decapitated one walker and was about to drive the stake of her Scythe into the of the head of the second. The last two received their second and final deaths by way of the aforementioned baseball bats before the five of them ran inside.

Shortly after getting inside and locking the door a blonde woman backed Rick up against a table, holding a gun inexpertly to his head looking incensed. "You son of a bitch! We ought to kill you!"

Without thinking Buffy suddenly had the woman on her knees, one hand bent behind her back, while the gun clattered to the floor and away from them. A smaller knife had appeared in her other hand and its sharp blade was resting against the unknown woman's throat. Her eyes had widened in shock while Buffy's own eyes had narrowed in annoyance more than anything else.

"Care to explain why you felt the need to threaten a live human being who your friend just risked his life to save? And don't give me the he attracted the walkers with gunshots BS, because that's not a good reason. We all attract them from time to time and your little stunt didn't improve anything. Especially since you were threatening him with gun." Buffy's voice was ice cold and in complete contrast to her ostensibly youthful clothing and hairstyle.

Evidently she had not seen Buffy because she was more than just a little bit startled by her sudden arrival. Although how she had missed Buffy slicing and dicing two animated corpses was anyone's guess.

"What?" The older blonde's voice was a little bewildered and confused, but the anger was still there underneath it all.

"Your friend, Glenn, risked his life to save Rick, Officer Dumbass over there, from the walkers who are currently feasting on his poor horse." Buffy turned her head towards the rest of the group before she continued. "Yes, he really did ride into downtown Atlanta on freaking horseback and straight into a herd of walkers, and then he proceeded to draw in even more of their friends by shooting inside an armored tank."

Turning back to the woman she was still holding in an armlock she said, without waiting for a reply to her first question and instead asking another. "Are you going to behave or do I have to cause some real physical damage to you instead of just denting your pride?" To prove her point she tightened her grip on the woman's arm and bent it even more upwards so her muscles would strain even more than they already did.

"I'll behave! Ow! Let me go!" Buffy did let go, and in the same smooth motion she made sure to be out of arm's length, just to be on the safe side. Little Miss Anger Management clearly had a hot temper, and getting into an actual fight with her would sooo not be fair.

Before anyone else could say anything a muted gunshot was heard from above them. Not long after there was a second gunshot and then a third. Buffy frowned, she hadn't seen anyone while she and Rick followed Glenn over the rooftops earlier.

"Oh god, is that Dixon?" Andrea asked in disbelief while rubbing her arm and shoulder while looking angrily at Buffy.

"What is that maniac doing now?" One of the guys with a baseball bat from the alley asked in exasperation. A fourth muffled gunshot was heard and the entire group left for the stairs to investigate what this 'Dixon' guy was shooting at up on the roof.

Yes, her blonde airhead cover was probably blown to pieces, but seriously? That Andrea woman's behavior was uncalled for, and it certainly didn't help that Buffy detested guns. In any case the act wouldn't have lasted particularly long. It had been years since she had bothered to play the part for more than a little while and even then it was only to trick particularly stupid vampires and demons if she was in the mood to prolong the foreplay to the actual fight. Add in the apocalypse and the chance of anyone believing the act had gone done substantially. Regardless, there was another gun toting' dumbass upstairs who might or might not need to be dealt with. Only time would tell.

Up on the rooftop a man in his early 50's was standing on the ledge shooting at the walkers down on the street with a scoped rifle. As soon as the group from downstairs came out on the roof two men, a Hispanic man and a black man who had been introduced as Morales and T-Dog along the way, began chastising Dixon for wasting bullets and attracting even more walkers by making loud noises. Buffy had absently connected Morales and T-Dog with the two men who had been killing the walkers in the alley.

The argument quickly escalated into a fight, complete with Dixon spouting insults and trying to make himself look better than the rest of the group. Given his language and what little she'd seen of his general attitude this was probably his version of hell; he was stuck in a walker infested city with four other men, only one of whom was white, and three women - including one with a very dark complexion. She mentally filed him away as white trash who she needed to keep an eye on.

While everyone were distracted with the scuffle, Buffy walked behind the rest of the group and helped herself to Rick's handcuffs, without him noticing, before walking in front of her latest problem person and put on her best cheerleader smile right as he was talking about a change in leadership.

"Hi!" Her smile was bright enough to blind the sun, but it had more teeth than when she'd done this to Glenn and Rick earlier down on the platform. "We haven't, like, been introduced yet, but I'm Buffy and I just, like, met some of the people from your group. Officer Not-So-Friendly back there showed up at the same time."

She conveniently pointed out Rick, who was still very obvious in his uniform and matching hat, to the now shocked Dixon. Not that she blamed him, it had to be perplexing to suddenly be face to face with the epitome of the dumb blonde in the middle of a fight for dominance at the end of the world.

"He had the bright idea to ride an actual horse into the city and right into a herd. Dumb, right?" She executed a perfect teenage 'adults are such idiots' eyeroll.

While she'd been talking she had moved closer to the man without him being any the wiser, and before the shock could wear off she grabbed the arm holding the rifle and twisted it just so that he lost the weapon. When it was out of his hand she completed the twist and got his arm behind his back, clicked one half of the handcuffs on around his wrist before quickly grabbing the other arm and finishing the process.

Buffy dropped the act again and gave a much more genuine grin. "I guess this means that I'm in charge."

Merle Dixon finally found his voice again. "What the hell, woman? Uncuff me!" The angry words rolled off Buffy as she put her knee into his back and put the small knife from earlier against his jugular vein. The man's struggles to free himself ceased immediately.

"Nope. You're clearly a problem that needs to be dealt with and this is as good as any way to do it. So be a good boy and be quiet, the adults need to have a little chat."

She turned towards the rest of the group, knife still held steady against the vein in his neck; it was little worse for wear after Dixon had thrown a few punches. T-Dog was on the ground and Morales had gotten a fist in the midsection, but thankfully they did not seem to be seriously injured. The rest of them were either angry, confused, exasperated, or a combination of the three. Buffy could live with that.

What followed was a short discussion over how to get out of the building they were currently trapped in and then through the increasingly large herd around the block. After checking out the flood tunnel underneath the building on Jacqui's suggestion and it turned out to be a bust, they were back to scratch when Buffy suddenly thought of something else.

"What about the backdoor we got in through? There's a bus blockage there so it should be relatively safe to go back there, up into the next door building and see if we can't find an exit there, or if necessary in the next building over".

After some more arguments it was agreed that that was what they were going to do. Glenn was sent to check on the state of the alley, armed with one of the baseball bats from before, while the rest of them stayed hidden away from the doors and the walkers who kept trying to get through the second door. Buffy made sure that all of them were armed with something in addition to a gun. Now was not the time to make an unnecessary racket.

Dixon, who people alternately called Merle, kept insulting everyone and using both sexist and racial slurs. After a short while Rick got annoyed enough that he found a pair of socks and a belt; the socks were separated and one was effectively stuffed inside Merle's mouth and the other was tossed away to the side while Rick used the belt to tie the first one in place. Most of the remaining group grinned in relief at that, no one had been interested in the tirade, but then Glenn returned and they were running out just as they heard the sliding doors in front of the building shatter and the walkers groaning loudly in anticipation of food.

There were another two walkers in the alley but they were quickly dispatched by Buffy and Glenn, and the group was soon up the stairs. Once they were inside the new building, and had made sure the door was both locked and blocked by heavy furniture in case some of the walkers decided to pursue them, they slowed to a walk while looking around carefully. Glenn, Buffy, and Rick had run through here earlier but that didn't mean that there couldn't be people - alive or undead - hiding somewhere. No matter how unlikely it was, it was better to be safe than sorry.

About an hour and several missteps later and they were out on the street. Which was when the next argument began; what did they do now? Get a car, get out of town and back to the Quarry Camp, or get a car and drive further into the city to fetch Buffy's friend, Rime, and all their supplies?

It didn't take Buffy long to break up the argument with an alternative as to what they should do next, and it said quite a lot about the group's lack of real leadership that they allowed what appeared to be a teenage girl to order them around with very little debate. It made her curious about the state of the actual camp and whoever was in charge there, and if he or she was a proper leader or just someone who had ended up with the job by default because there was no one who was really suited for it.

Buffy decided that she along with one or two of the group would go and get Rime and their stuff, while the rest of the group would go ahead to the camp outside the city. The returning group could simply pick a car and hotwire it, there were certainly enough abandoned vehicles to choose from and a suitable one might even have keys. The roads should be easy enough to get through from here on and out if they were careful.

Unsurprisingly there was a clash of opinions over whether it was smart to split up and then who should go with Buffy to 'protect' her, even if no one actually used those words. There were short memories all around apparently, except for Glenn, Andrea, and the still handcuffed and gagged Merle who had all either experienced Buffy's ability to defend herself first hand and then watched her proficiency to attack if she had to, or witnessed it twice in Glenn's case.

In the end she picked Glenn because he was fast and even tempered, and by his own admission had already been on several supply runs in the city by himself, indirectly indicating that he was able to get around without getting hurt or killed by walkers or other live human beings. The lack of interruptions and objections from the rest gave it credibility. To Buffy's and everyone else's surprise, Andrea volunteered herself as the third person, citing that she needed the experience. Which, okay, good point. Although she made certain the woman understood that Buffy was in charge and that her word was law, and that there would be repercussions if she caused problems.

A deal was struck; Morales, T-Dog, Merle, Jacqui, and Rick would return to the Quarry Camp as soon as they got themselves a working car, and Buffy, Glenn, and Andrea would return to the furniture store and Rime. Depending on the situation over there, the number of walkers outside, how long it would take them to actually get there, and how long it took them to move everything into a car they would return to the camp either later in the day or the next morning.

They split from Morales' part of the group with them going one way and Buffy's the other. Buffy, Glenn, and Andrea walked to the astonishment of the last two, but she insisted. They were headed further towards downtown and using something as noisy as a car would only draw the walkers straight to them. Probably hungry and desperate humans as well. No, it was better to walk. It also meant they could drop into various shops along the way and hopefully find more provisions. The drawback being, of course, that they could only carry so much while still being able to run, but a little food and medicine was better than nothing and could make all the difference later on.

Mentally Buffy kicked herself for not bringing her backpack when she'd left that morning, but done was done.

After over three hours, entering about half a dozen shops and four offices where they managed to acquire some food, water, a few first aid kits, a couple changes of clothing, and even a few bags to store it all in, they arrived at Buffy's base/temporary home. There had only be a couple of incidents where they had been forced to kill walkers to get away but Buffy's Scythe had made quick work of them and they'd gotten away easy enough.


	5. What About the Place That We Call Home?

This chapter takes place during TWD episodes "Guts" (01x02), "Tell It To the Frogs" (01x03), and "Vatos" (01x04).

This is a merged and expanded version of 'Watch the Fall of Humanity' chapter 8 (A Comfortable Bed For the Night) and chapter 9 (Reality Check For the Quarry Camp).

Thank you to all those who have left reviews, favorites, and/or followed this story.

Buffy was relieved when they finally reached the furniture store. If she had been on her own it would've taken half an hour, 45 minutes at the most, not over three hours, and it wasn't just because of her Slayer abilities either, although those most definitely helped. Of course she also knew where to go and which places to avoid due to blocked roads and barricaded areas and the places where the walkers tended to shuffle towards. The extra supplies they'd gathered would be useful though, she couldn't argue against that.

It was strange really, as a teenager she couldn't go on a weekend trip without at least two big bags of clothing, a separate bag for her shoes, and a whole lot of other 'necessary' items, and then when she began travelling after the Battle of Sunnydale she learned to pack everything she needed in two medium sized bags with the understanding she would be on the road for months without returning to her base. Granted by the time she returned she always had a third bag full of new clothing and other things she'd bought along the way, but still the difference was remarkable.

This did not include her weapons though. That was a whole other issue she refused to compromise on, and now, post-apocalypse, she was reassured that this had been a good decision. It meant that when the infection had first broken out she'd had the vast majority of her weapons with her, instead of much of it being left somewhere else. Thanks to Rime being her unofficial Watcher, and Buffy's habit of slipping away from whoever the Council officially assigned to her, the two of them also had a large collection of demon reference books, books on prophecy, and other associated books and things Council employee's needed when they were assigned to a Potential Slayer or an Activated Slayer to back her up.

The unofficial job title had also caused Rime to finally make Buffy read the Slayer Handbook, after Rime herself had read it, which to her surprise had turned out to have valuable information regarding her Calling. While the book was clearly written in Old English it was understandable enough given all the time Buffy had spent reading and researching during high school, college, and all the years after that. She would never have admitted it to any of her official Watchers, but Giles had been right: making her read this when she first began attending Sunnydale High would've been a waste of time.

Rime always packed light, at least as far as people knew. A comfortable backpack and a medium sized bag was all she had owned Before. Of course her backpack had some kind of fancy spellwork on it to make it bottomless and to make sure it was always a comfortable weight on her back. The extra bag had mostly been for show, and to a lesser degree for easier access to various things she used often. Once things got out of hand the bag had unceremoniously been placed in the backpack since there was no longer a need to pretend. Nowadays people only had what they could carry easily.

It had joined what Buffy suspected was about a millennium's worth of discarded stuff down there. Archeologists and history lovers the world over would probably have sacrificed just about anything to get their hands on it and it's priceless content, especially if Rime was present and could explain the use, the context, and which area and time period it was all from.

The second Christmas after they met she had given Buffy a similar backpack with the same magical properties. It was, without a doubt, one of her top three most prized possessions. The apocalypse had only increased its value to her. Incidentally it had also increased the amount of luggage she brought with her.

When the apocalypse had become a fact they'd used what little spare time they'd had in between killing/avoiding the walking dead, saving/avoiding the living, and gathering supplies to skim through every single book they had with them to try and find something, anything concerning what was going on. There had been nothing. No prophecy, no mention, no vague or unclear hint pointing towards the current happenings. Nothing. Which was the main reason why both Buffy and Rime believed that the current mess they were in was man made, or at least some kind of natural causes, and not the result of something demons and/or vampires and/or magical humans had caused. There was a chance there was a book somewhere out there, most likely in the Council's vast and widespread library, which could explain the not-zombies and how to permanently stop them from spreading their infection, but right now it wasn't helpful to the two of them.

Buffy hadn't brought the backpack with her on her little sojourn into walker territory though, it was safely back at the temporary base with Rime. Which meant taking a new, normal one from a random shop to put her loot in, and then add to it as they moved closer to their goal. The drawback was that should could take less things with her, but it was her own fault for leaving the enchanted backpack behind when she ventured outside to appease her inner Slayer.

All three of them had managed to fill their packs to the brim by the time they made it to the furniture store. Water had been their main priority, closely followed by food and medicine. Both Glenn and Andrea had also taken some clothes along the way, and in Andrea's case she had also taken some for her little sister.

They entered through a side door Buffy had a key to, there had been several spare keys in an office which they'd found after breaking in through a window on the second floor to avoid unpleasant dinner guests later on, and walked quietly inside before ascending a flight of stairs to the second floor. Like any other shop it had had an alarm system but Rime had somehow managed to disarm it.

"Rime. I'm back and I brought guests." Buffy's voice was low so as not to disturb anything or anyone they didn't want to know about their presence. It was unlikely that there were walkers or any other humans than her friend in the building, but it was better to stay safe than be sorry about it later. If there was a later. She didn't sense anything dead or alive other than her friend, nor did she hear anything other than her soft breathing.

"How can you be sure she's still in here alive if you left her alone?" It was Andrea who spoke, of course it was. Or rather it was Andrea who asked in a hissing whisper. Buffy supposed it was a good thing that she at least kept her voice down. There was a long chat in Andrea's future about her desperate need to fit in and to prove herself, and how it only made things worse for her not better. But that for later, when the situation had calmed down a little and they could have a girl talk, just the two of them. Now there were other more pressing issues to deal with than a whining woman in her mid-thirties.

The three of them kept walking, the blonde Slayer in the lead, further into the main part of the second floor before veering to the left. She called out again, ignoring the recently asked question, and this time she got a reply from her friend.

"I am still here. Who are your new friends?" Rime's voice was soft and came from their right side. Buffy stepped around a tall bookcase and came face-to-face with her long time friend. Judging by her appearance she'd been bored enough during the day to try and fix her hair as it was currently loose with only three braids on each side of her face, framing it in a complementary way, instead of the long braid she usually wore down her back. She had also changed into jeans and a blue, short-sleeved top with muted yellow stars on it. Essentially she looked like a sort-of modern day hippie. The two of them must've come off as really odd to the two outsiders.

"This is Andrea Harrison and Glenn Rhee. They're part of a bigger group who have set up camp in a quarry outside the city." She turned away from the two new survivors and towards her snowy-haired friend and then back again. "This is Rime." Then she turned back to Rime and her explanation again.

"Those two and some others were sent into Atlanta to get supplies for everyone. Some guy named Rick decided it was a great idea to ride a horse into the city and started a feeding frenzy when he lost the horse to a hungry herd." Buffy paused a little so Rime could absorb the news before she continued.

"He went back to the camp with the others. We're here to fetch you and our stuff and then go to the camp as well." She finished her recap of the day's events so far. Unseen by the other two she gave Rime their long-time signal that they needed to talk, privately.

Buffy then expanded on her explanation, with running commentary from Andrea, and, to a lesser extent, Glenn. The added description from the other woman caused it to take longer than it should have, but if there was something they had a lot of now it was time.

Later on when they had finished going through everything, both the verbal rehashing of the meeting with part of the Quarry Camp and when they had finished going through all their provisions - excluding the content in their magically expanded backpacks - it was late enough that Buffy made an executive decision and decided they would spend one last night at the furniture store. Andrea protested immediately, but Glenn agreed while giving the soft-looking beds a longing look.

Full dark was approaching fast and it would make it more difficult to spot the walkers in between the shadows and to hear their shuffling footsteps over their own and the likely chatter which would no doubt occur, especially since they would need to go back and forth to load up Buffy's car. Darkness plus big, heavy bags and boxes equaled a very bad idea. It was also a lousy survival strategy.

If nothing else it was probably the last time in who knew how long until they would be able to sleep in proper beds again. A fact which made even Andrea relent, and it was unanimous; they would get up bright and early the next morning, pack everything into the car, and then leave for the camp.

Buffy would usually go days, or occasionally up to a week, without sleeping if the situation called for it. She would patrol cemeteries, dance at nightclubs while surveying the locale for hungry vampires looking for a snack, and patrol the streets late at night before and after the other two. There was research to be done, self-study after she had to drop out of college, and she usually ended up doing all the housework she didn't have time for during the day.

Her sleeping patterns had changed drastically after Willow used black magic to resurrect her; afterwards she hadn't just felt like she was in her own personal hell, but more and more she was unable to find even temporary salvation in dreams. She had been able to sleep less and less, and when she was able to sleep her dreams were often of the prophetic kind, and if it wasn't then she dreamt of past Slayers; their triumphs and their failures and it always, _always_ ended in a violent death, which wasn't conductive at all to the healing slumber she needed. First she had stayed awake for about two days before being able to rest for a full night, but soon her respite had gone down one hour at a time until she was lucky if she got three full hours.

It was both a blessing and a curse, one of the upsides to it was that she had gotten much less tired after receiving the additional power from the Shadowmen and then, not long after, another boost from the Slayer Activation Spell. Faith had told her later she didn't tire much either after that, but the change had been different for her. The dark haired Slayer could still sleep if she wanted to, but she also had the option of going without it without compromising herself.

It also meant she didn't lose five to eight hours a night to sleep, meaning she got a lot more done. Still, most of the time she would've rather had a full night of rest. Slayer healing was great for fixing her physical body, including the dark bags she should've no doubt have had under her eyes, but it did nothing to alleviate her mind. Once again her sacred Calling had taken something necessary from her, but in this case it was affecting her mental state in a way nothing else had. Buffy missed falling asleep at night and waking up well rested in the morning. At least that's what she'd wanted Before. Now it was a key reason as to why she and Rime were still alive, and it would be a key reason to keep the dumbasses outside the city alive as well.

Last night however she had gotten into bed and made sure to get a few hours of rest despite having slept the night before, and to her own shock she had actually been successful in this endeavour. Rime had graciously agreed to keep watch for the few hours Buffy would be able to keep her eyes closed, then she would catch a few hours of rest while Buffy took over watch duties. Which naturally meant she was subjected to a Slayer Dream regarding the future of the Quarry Camp, and if the little she saw was any indication they were even bigger fools than she had originally thought.

What were they thinking, camping out in the woods with no protection whatsoever? That had been irresponsible even before the world ended. No walls, no fences, no barricades or fortifications of any kind, or even using their cars and buildings as a first defence; half the people sleeping in _tents_? A single older man as a lookout on the top of an RV? Using _guns_ as their primary weapon when her first encounter with them clearly demonstrated their awareness that the walkers are attracted to loud noises? Had these people ever heard of _self-preservation_? Buffy felt like banging her head against the nearest hard surface. Rather than giving in to the impulse she began mentally planning how to get these people into a more defensive state of mind, instead of just instinctively reacting in self-defense.

By first light she had an outline, but she needed to meet the rest of the camp before she made any specific plans. Who knew what kind of skills the various members were hiding but which could be highly beneficial to them all? She put her unfinished plan on the backburner and focused on getting Rime, Andrea, and Glenn out of the furniture store and into the two cars waiting for them outside. One of them was Buffy's car; a four wheel drive Jeep she'd had Before and which was thankfully in good working order, and the other car was a FedEx van they had filled with various supplies. Andrea and Glenn would drive that one while Buffy and Rime took her car. A part of her protested against allowing most of their hard-won supplies being in the hands of two near strangers, but she could only be one place at a time.

When they finally reached the campsite several hours later they had stopped once to raid a sporting goods store for any number of things they needed for the group's continued survival. It had somehow remained untouched and to their great surprise it was even free of the undead. Their 'shopping list' included but was not limited to knives, swords, katanas, scabbards, sheaths, crossbows, arrows, crossbow bolts, guns, rifles, ammunition, books on surviving in various natural regions and all kinds of weather conditions. Hiking gear; shoes for all seasons, clothing, flashlights and batteries, fishing equipment, rappelling equipment, cooking and assorted appliances, sunglasses, bug spray, hats, medical kits, maps of both Atlanta, the surrounding areas, and the US in general, compasses, and a whole lot of other things which might or might not come in useful.

Halfway through their looting of the store Buffy made a mental note to keep an eye out for other sporting goods stores and similar places; they were a goldmine and people seemed to have ignored them in their haste to get food and water. She also needed to have a meeting with everyone to figure out where there might be more useful things, and possibly stored food and water. She was a city girl and despite having prevented over a dozen apocalypses over nearly two decades she still didn't really know where backup supplies were hidden, but she was relatively certain there were hurricane shelters and such which had to include at least the basic necessities.

Upon their arrival at the camp Andrea was enthusiastically greeted by a young blonde woman in her mid-twenties whom Buffy assumed was the younger sister she'd been talking about. This left Glenn to introduce her and Rime to the others and share the news of the supplies she and Rime had stolen from various places within the city, plus what their little detour on the way back had yielded. The news had been greeted with great eagerness and approval. Her disapproval of their lack of any defenses was less welcome.

"Why have you pitched tents when you _know_ there are corpses walking around just waiting to find and _eat_ all of you? Do you have any idea how vulnerable you are inside that little piece of canvas?" She should probably have waited at least an hour before starting in on them, but really. This was way beyond ridiculous, and the fact that they had stayed here for eight weeks without getting ambushed was a miracle.

A dark haired man in a blue striped shirt, several days worth of scruff, and a necklace with a '22' on it jumped right in and defended what she quickly understood to be his decisions.

"Easy, girl. We're relatively safe out here. A few walkers have come close to the camp but we have a sentry to keep watch." Buffy actually rolled her eyes at that, and idly thanked herself for changing into a blue tank top and that she left her hair loose rather than re-braid them into the twin braids she'd had it in when she met the others. The numerous sheaths and holsters all over her body helped to give the impression she wasn't as helpless as she would've looked otherwise. Thereby giving her words more validity.

"That won't help much if, or rather _when_ , the camp gets overrun. The guard will have to yell to get everyone's attention, especially if it happens at night and everyone is asleep, and that will also get the attention of all the walkers in the vicinity since they usually roam in large, loose groups. Meanwhile the people in the tents will be sitting ducks whether they stay inside or if they try to get out. They'll be vulnerable and easy prey." She resisted the urge to cross her arms below her chest like an indignant teenager.

"If you're going to stay somewhere this unsafe the least you could've done is make sure everyone slept in the cars, the RV, or somewhere high enough that the walkers can't get to them. That way they would've at least had a chance of getting out of it alive."

Unsurprisingly everything went downhill from there, and when the time came to sleep for the night the asshat chose to very deliberately and very blatantly go to and enter his tent. Lori, supported by Rick, who it turned out was Lori's husband, asked if they could sleep in the back of the FedEx van rather than the tent she and her son, Carl, had slept in up to that point. Andrea and her sister Amy asked if they could sleep in the front seats of the same van. Buffy permitted both, along with allowing Glenn to sleep in the backseat of her Jeep while Rime took one of the front seats.

About half of the people in the camp who had slept in the tents so far ended up staying inside a vehicle that night, while others agreed with Shane and went to their own tents. The new arrangements were much more intimate than the older one, but it provided more shelter and protection. Buffy herself spent the night on the hood of her car, keeping watch from a lower position than the sentry on the top of the RV.

It wasn't a great solution but she'd gotten them to take a few baby steps in the right direction, so she decided to count it as a small victory. The fact that no one had tried to chase her away from the camp helped, too. Although that most likely had more to do with the supplies she and Rime had brought along that Buffy herself.

Over the next few days Buffy, supported and aided by Rime, the two elder Grimes', Morales, Glenn, Andrea, Amy, T-Dog, and Jacqui tried to make the campsite more secure. It wasn't an easy task, and the preferable thing would've been to leave the area entirely. Unfortunately that idea was shot down by more people than just Shane.

In between she tried to teach those who were willing to fight with swords and knives. Starting with how to hold them safely, both when you were carrying them either in your hand or when it was in a sheath or holster, and how to use them properly and most effectively when dealing with walkers. Those lessons invariably also included how to fight hand-to-hand.

While Buffy was trying to teach self-defense and how to most effectively kill the walking dead, Rime offered her services as a doctor and began checking out everyone for any kind of illnesses, wounds, and other ailments. Predictably she was much more welcome in the group than Buffy was, but they made it crystal clear that they were a package deal.

Then, five days after their arrival, she was out in the woods hunting for deer along with Daryl, Merle's younger brother. Daryl had proved himself to be a competent tracker and hunter, which had come as a relief to her. It was good to know that at least someone in this group had a skillset in the survival category. He turned out to be a slightly more friendly version of his brother, but without the racism and without most of the sexism. He was easier on the eyes as well, which was shallow of her to think given the situation, but it was true.

When they neared the camp after having successfully tracked and shot a deer Buffy suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of a woman screaming; it was quickly followed by gunshots and more screaming.


	6. Bad Moon Rising

_This chapter takes place during TWD episode "Vatos" (01x04)._  
 _This is the expanded version of the 'Watch the Fall of Humanity' chapter 10 (Bad Moon Rising)._  
 _Thank you to all those who have left kudos, reviews, and/or followed this story._

They were still far enough away from the camp that normal people would not have been able to hear either the screaming or the gunshots, but Buffy's hearing had been extremely enhanced due to the power given to her when she was Chosen as the new Slayer. Her senses had only become more potent over the years as she grew even more powerful with age, experience, and the power boosts from that last year in Sunnydale. Buffy had hoped to get more time to prepare the group for the walker ambush she had seen in her Slayer Dream nearly a week before, but clearly that was not to be. She sighed quietly and turned to Daryl who was walking four paces behind her and to the left.

They had both been cautiously relaxed due to the successful hunt and the near lack of walkers they had encountered since they left early that morning. It appeared as though Murphy disagreed with their level of luck and now reality intruded to cause havoc again.

Throwing caution to the wind she said, "There's an attack on the camp; dump the rabbits and the squirrels and start running." And before he got the chance to do more than turn his head and stare at her in surprise she dropped the deer to the ground and took off at a speed no human could ever hope to match or even get near. Absently she heard him divest himself of the animal carcasses and start running far behind her as he cursed.

Buffy reached the campsite within ten minutes and ran into total chaos. There were walkers everywhere, the group was scattered all over, and only a few had managed to get into the various vehicles as far as she could see. She did a mental headcount; there had been 35 people in the camp when she and Daryl had gone hunting that morning, but it looked like that number would be seriously reduced tonight.

She called the Scythe to her hand and continued her run into the middle of the campsite and sliced the head of four walkers on the way. Andrea and Amy were standing in front of the FedEx van wielding the swords she had given them on the second day. There was no grace to their movements but there was a small and steadily growing pile of permanently dead corpses in front of them and to both sides, and that meant that the two women had managed to learn something in the last few days. Sophia and Carl were between them and the truck in relative safety, but none of them had noticed the crawlers beneath the big vehicle. Lori was on the other side of the camp between Rick and Shane who were all trying with increasing desperation to kill the walkers and get to Carl if their frantic looks around the campsite and their movements were any indication.

Miranda and her two children were inside their car while Morales and Glenn were outside shooting at anything that came towards them. T-Dog was shooting at anything that was moving and didn't look alive as well. It was a disorganized mess, but the upside was that they were defending the weaker members of the group. If nothing else this should work to her advantage so she could finally get them onboard with her ideas to protect and arm the group her way.

Buffy took in everything in a second and went straight for the FedEx van, slicing and dicing all the walkers who dared to cross her path. When she made it there she threw the Scythe high into the air before she grabbed Sophia and then threw her onto the roof of the truck. Carl got the same treatment a few seconds later. Then she caught the Scythe on its downward arch and stabbed a walker in the eye. The children would probably have some bruises later due to the rough landing but they would be safer up there than down on the ground, at least as long as none of the walkers realized they could get to them by way of the hood of the car. As an afterthought she stabbed the two crawlers in the back of the head before they could reach her or the Harrison sisters.

To her great approval the two sisters were still chopping heads off of the walkers rather than gawking at her and what she was doing. All they'd done was turn enough to identify her and then they went straight back to what they'd been doing. Buffy joined them in their endeavour to get some answers.

"What happened here?"

"We were eating dinner. I had to go to the bathroom, and when I came back out of the RV I saw a walker right in front of me. Thankfully I brought the sword you gave me with me and managed to cut its arm off and then the head. I screamed to get everyone's attention." The reply came from Amy, who was now in between Buffy and her sister. Screaming in that kind of situation was both good and bad, but there was nothing to do about it now.

Andrea added, "We didn't hear or see them before they were already on top of us, but they came from the forest." That was off as neither she nor Daryl had seen any herds while hunting. A few had shambled around on their own, and in some cases two or three, but not a herd. How had she neither seen nor heard them? A large group of shuffling corpses made a lot of noise, even in a forest.

After severing another head Amy resumed her explanation, "Everyone began screaming and shouting, then shooting. Andrea got over to me and we got Carl and Sophia. And now you're here." She paused and looked behind Buffy. "Where's Daryl?"

"We got a deer, some rabbits and some squirrels. He had to put them somewhere so I ran ahead." She gave the camp another overview, before she tacked on, "Good job with the swords, both of you. Keep it up and remember to look out for crawlers." She gave a short nod towards the downed walkers still mostly under the delivery truck. Then she gave them an encouraging smile before she moved on. She left it unsaid that they were to maintain their protective stance over the two kids. They had clearly come to that conclusion on their own.

There was no need to explain that she ran too fast for Daryl to keep up. He would get there and hopefully not get killed by the stragglers. Daryl, unlike most of the adults in the group, had a skillset which was both beneficial and incredibly important for their survival. As time went on they would rely on this more and more as the canned and dried food was used up or out of reach for them. It was kinda horrifying to see that most of the group treated him like a worthless outcast, and completely ignoring that he was one of the few people who ensured they had fresh meat to eat. Amy got a point for worrying about the safety of the hunter, even if Buffy was relatively certain her concern was more because she had a crush on the man than because he was crucial to the group's continued survival.

She looked around the camp again. Where was Rime? Her snow white hair was always easily recognizable in any crowd, and it usually made it an effortless task to spot her, especially at night. Buffy's Scythe was in continuous motion; separating the top of the walkers head from the rest of their body, and stabbing others in the eye or the side of the head with the stake in the other end. It was quick and effective; a process she had perfected over the last decade on an entirely different kind of undead. Even if the stabbing was now aimed towards the head rather than the chest and an unbeating heart.

Slicing and stabbing her way across the camp she reached Rick, Shane, and Lori. By the time she got there they had managed to get themselves surrounded by about a dozen of the damn things. Another bout of slicing and dicing and she was beside Rick who was looking frantically around, no doubt looking for his missing son.

"Carl and Sophia are on top of the FedEx truck, and reasonably safe. For now." The eyes of Rick, his wife, and his supposed best friend immediately flew to the top of the vehicle in question and the boy's parents both let out a breath of relief. Shane appeared to be partly reassured and partly pissed. Buffy noted his reaction for later and moved on.

Then she got to the real reason she was over by them, as per her experiences the parents of missing children were rarely able to properly answer questions while the the fate of their offspring were unknown. Get the child, or at least point the child out to them, and they would calm down somewhat and most of the time be more willing to help as long as their own children were safe and unharmed. Well, in the new world order it was more as safe as anyone could be in the middle of a walker ambush, but the sentiment was still there.

"Have any of you seen Rime?" Rick and Shane had gone back to shooting the walkers closest to them as soon as Carl's safety had been clarified, while Lori was simply holding her machete in an awkward, half-defensive grip. Buffy knew the woman could aim and kill walkers, had seen her do it a couple of times in the last few days when they'd met stray walkers in the forest, but she clearly expected her husband and Shane to protect her so she wouldn't have to use the weapon. It was a bad habit that needed to be broken, quickly, if she intended to survive. Teamwork was great, but everyone needed to be willing and able to defend themselves if they ended up by themselves for whatever reason.

The three of them refocused their attention at the question and looked carefully around the encampment, trying to spot the 'young' woman. Given that all three of them were much taller than Buffy's 5'2" their chances of spotting Rime was better than her own. Meanwhile Buffy cut half the head of another three walkers and stabbed another two.

"No, we've been too focused on finding Carl, and I can't see her anywhere." Lori replied, meeting Buffy's eyes with a sympathetic look before her eyes slid back up to her son. The two men added their own negative replies in between taking shots.

Buffy nodded and moved on. Slice, chop, kick, stab, stab. The Slayer danced around the camp at a speed no one else could've matched. Cut, kick, kick, slice, stab, and she jumped over a pile of no longer moving bodies. Then she heard Rime's voice and she focused on the sound, pinpointing the direction it was coming from.

A few seconds later she was by Dale's RV, with the older man sitting wide-eyed inside along with a woman she didn't remember the name of. Then she was around the other side of the vehicle and finally saw her friend. She and Jacqui were trying to calm down a hysterical woman Buffy recognized as Carol only because she was Sophia's mother. Years of having to figure out which child belonged to which parents had its uses.

She repeated her words from the short meeting with the Grimes parents, "Sophia and Carl are on top of the FedEx truck, and safe from the walkers as long as they stay up there." Then added, "Andrea and Amy are doing a great job guarding them."

Much like Lori and Rick she gave a breath of relief, but it didn't explain the continued tears. The little girl was alive, and as far as Buffy had seen both mother and daughter were unharmed. Then Carol ran around the RV without much thought so she could see her daughter with her own eyes, and Buffy reflexively yanked her back just in time to stop her from getting munched on by yet another corpse. Buffy stabbed it with Faith's knife almost without thinking while maneuvering the elder woman so she was behind her.

"Be careful!" Buffy hissed in a low voice, trying not to attract any more of them to their little semi-peaceful zombie-free zone. As far as she could see Carol was armed with nothing more than a small knife. It was better than nothing at all, but she was not a fighter, as proven by her staying with an abusive husband, and that left close-up kills out of the question. Buffy made eye-contact with Rime, and she answered the unasked question.

"Ed was killed by a walker inside their tent." Right. He was one of the useless idiots in the camp who did nothing, except for drinking, smoking, and complain about everyone else, but thought they should get special treatment just for existing. He was no loss for the group, and both Carol and Sophia were better off without him in their lives.

She opened her mouth to comment but was interrupted by a loud "NO!" Buffy frowned, she was 99% certain that that was Daryl's voice. Quickly moving back around to the front of the RV she got a full view of the middle of the campsite again, and what she saw made her heart clench a little. Daryl was kneeling by his brother who was clearly bleeding sluggishly from a bite in the upper part of the shoulder and, she was pretty certain, the lower part of his neck.

Buffy didn't care about Merle, he had a serious attitude problem even if you ignored the racism and his blatant sexism, and he was an even bigger problem for the group as a whole, but none of that changed the fact that he was Daryl's brother. And relatives were in short supply ever since the world as they had known it had ended. Unbidden memories of losing Dawn came to the forefront of her mind; Dawn's bright blue eyes looking at her, trusting that her big sister would save her as she had always done in the past. Buffy forcefully pushed the memories back into the box she kept them in and shoved it to the back of her mind where they beloged.

Instead of running over to her distraught hunting partner she grabbed Carol and Jacqui and dragged them around to the right side of the RV, momentarily let go of Jacqui to get the door open, and then quickly shepherded the two women into the back of it. Behind them Rime dispatched several more of the corpses while covering their backs. After having secured the two non-fighters inside the RV she and Rime ran over to the two brothers, decapitating and stabbing a number of walkers on the way.

"Daryl?" She moved up beside him and quickly dispatched of the two walkers who had tried to sneak up behind him while he was distracted. She was silently cursing herself for not bringing her crossbow when they were hunting earlier, it would've made things easier for them. Killing the walkers from a distance made them less of a threat than when you had to make a close kill. It was something she had cursed herself for not doing several times even while they were out in the woods together, just the two of them.

Both she and Rime were politely not looking at the tears visible on Daryl's face. Merle was still breathing, but all three of them knew it was only a matter of time before whatever it was that caused the dead people to reanimate would kill him. On Daryl's other side Rime used a machete to stab yet another walker. Daryl hadn't noticed any of it, all of his focus was on his dying brother.

Behind their little group Morales, T-Dog, and Glenn were firing into a small newly arrived herd who had just broken through the treeline. Rick, Lori, and Shane had made it over to the FedEx truck and were moving around it to the other side, presumably so the three of them plus Andrea and Amy could surround it to ensure the safety of the children.

Then out of nowhere, Daryl took his hunting knife out of its sheath and stabbed his own brother right between the eyes without hesitating. Afterwards he bowed his head while keeping his hand on the knife while it was still embedded into his brothers skull. Then he began whispering in a nearly inaudible voice, and Buffy suddenly felt like an intruder eavesdropping on something extremely private. Enhanced hearing was both a blessing and a curse, but in this instance at least she was the only one capable of hearing Daryl's last words to his dead brother and she would never tell anyone.

Rime and Buffy made eye contact over the two brothers before they went back to shielding Daryl. The Dixon brothers hadn't always gotten along as far as they had been able to discern from their behaviour, but they had cared about each other in their own messed up way. Since the outbreak had begun the last thing you could do for anyone was to stab them in the head before they reanimated, and apparently Daryl had caught onto this truth.

A few minutes later the soft words stopped and he got back up, removed the knife, and straight off began cleaning it on the piece of cloth from his back pocket before putting the small weapon back in its sheath. Buffy took one of her machetes, a kukri, out of its sheath and handed it to Daryl, handle first, without comment. She simply nodded respectfully and got one in return. This was not the time for talking.

Daryl was a predator, a different kind that her but still a predator, and the pointless death of his only living relative demanded an act of violence to properly take the edge off of the anger so he could grieve properly later. Using his crossbow or a gun would not suffice, and his bare fists were a bad idea all on its own. That left knives and swords. The machete was a long bladed knife. Long enough that he wouldn't put himself at too much risk and short enough that he could get a close kill to vent his anger and grief into.

It was going to be a long night, but Buffy and Rime silently agreed to watch over and aid the distressed hunter.


	7. Moving Forward

This chapter takes place during the Walking Dead episode "TS-19" (01x06).

This is the expanded version of the 'Watch the Fall of Humanity' chapter 11 (Aftermath).

Thank you to all those who have left kudos, reviews, and/or followed this story.

When all was said and done it had turned out that their little group of survivors had been reduced from 35 to 16. Among the the dead after the walker ambush were Merle Dixon, Daryl's older brother, and Ed Peletier, Carol's husband and Sophia's father. Along with 15 others. The day after the ambush Morales and his wife, Miranda, decided to take their chances on the road and drove off with their two children to try and find some of their relatives in Birmingham.

Which meant that the surviving and remaining members of the group were the Harrison sisters, the Grimes family, Dale, Glenn, T-Dog, Jacqui, Daryl, Shane, Jim, Rime, Buffy, and the two remaining Peletier's. On one hand it was terrible that the camp had been reduced to less than half of its original number, but on the hand a dozen plus was a much more manageable number than close to forty people. Especially when they had no safe place to stay, walkers were roaming everywhere, and food and water was becoming scarce. On top of that they needed to start thinking about preparations for the winter.

Over half of their group had ended up dead because there had been no real leader and no one besides Buffy had even tried to teach anyone self-defense or do more than give anyone a quick 'this is how you kill the walkers if you're attacked', and then with the Morales family leaving their little community were floundering. This was when Buffy decided to step up and take over leadership before someone else got the same idea.

Shane was too unstable to lead anyone, including himself, as his obsession with Lori, and to a much lesser degree Carl, grew and he increasingly let his responsibilities to the group slip by the wayside. She would give him points for setting up the camp, although he should've done a lot more to keep it safe for everyone. Rick wasn't ruthless enough to be at the top of the food chain at this point, even if Buffy suspected he had the potential once he'd gotten his face rubbed into the facts of their new day-to-day lives a little more, but so far he seemed unwilling to make the harsh decisions that needed to be made in order for them to get by.

And for all of Andrea's opinions on anything going on she didn't have the knowledge, personality, or support to be in charge of them. Too many found her to be bitchy, whiny, and generally annoying. Nor did she actually want to lead them, which was a blessing, but she did want to be a part of the leadership. Daryl might've been a contender for the title if he'd been interested in the position, but from what Buffy had seen of the man he'd rather stay on the outskirts and hunt by himself. He was also still affected by the recent loss of his brother, but his head was firmly in the present. He was ever observant of his surroundings and she respected that.

Still, Buffy had learned from her mistakes in Sunnydale and she had also learned from some lesser mistakes, both her own and others, afterwards while the Scoobies and the newly-Called Slayers were trying to rebuild the ICW and make it into something a lot more Slayer and Potential-friendly, so she made her own little 'council' consisting of the ones who had actual survival skills; meaning herself, Rime, Daryl, Rick, and Andrea. Buffy was a natural leader and an incredibly strong fighter and tactician; Rime had over a millennium's worth of healing and medical skills, although the group believed her to be a young looking newly graduated doctor with a strong interest in how medicine worked before modern times, not to mention that she knew how to live without the benefit of electricity; Daryl could track and hunt, he was also a capable fighter with extensive experience with a crossbow; Andrea, and to a lesser degree Amy, knew how to fish; and Rick was just a leader type. It gave her a place to start and if they could work together they would have a fighting chance to survive in this new world.

Shane would no doubt kick up a fuss, and there were probably those who were happy with his leadership and would side with him, but he was too reckless, too distracted to be of any real use. It was a pity since as a law enforcement officer he probably had useful skills.

It wouldn't be easy to lead them this way, all five of them had strong personalities, but compromises were a way of life no matter how you looked at it, and the last year in Sunnydale had taught her the importance of delegation and good communication. Both aspects had been reinforced repeatedly after she had met and begun travelling with Rime as she had developed a habit of wanting to take full control of everything in a knee-jerk reaction she still sometimes fell back on. Thankfully Rime was there to remind her that she didn't have to do everything herself, and she was much more diplomatic about it than the Scoobies had been. Something which was most likely a side effect of having been around for so long. Rime was normally a gentle soul, but she had a backbone of pure steel, and the gods may have mercy on anyone who wronged her.

Although if she was completely honest with herself, and she tried to be, then she only allowed Andrea on board so she wouldn't put up a stink for being left out. The woman had some serious inferiority issues and an odd need to prove herself as one of the 'boys' despite being in her mid-thirties and having had a successful career in a male dominated field. Or maybe that's where the insecurity came from. Who knew. Rick was only a member because she suspected it would split the group if she didn't allow it. Lori would take her husband's side and who knew who else might side with them. The last thing they needed were for someone else to split and go off on their own. There was strength in numbers, especially given the increasingly large herds who were making their way out of the big cities.

She was pretty certain that Glenn, Andrea, Amy, T-Dog, and Daryl would side with her when it came to who should lead the group, and she also believed that they would side with her regarding the decision to make sure everyone learned at the very least the basic skills needed to survive in this new world. Dale could go either way because of his pacifistic views, but Carol seemed likely to follow Daryl. Which gave Buffy seven votes, including Rime. Assuming Andrea wouldn't try for the leadership, in which case she'd lose at least two votes.

The changes she intended to enforce would not go over well, at least not all of them, but they were necessary for their continued survival. Everyone, including the two children, needed to learn how to effectively use melee weaponry, especially swords, knives, and crossbows as there were a finite number of bullets left in the world and the same with the actual guns. Bolts and arrows on the other hand could be made with a little trial and error, as could blades.

Everyone needed to learn how to hunt, fish, set traps, and any other way to gather food which could no longer be gained by walking into a grocery store. In other words a step-by-step tutorial on how to prepare the food for consumption, including field dressing their kill. They needed to be taught that all water which did not come from a sealed bottle needed to be boiled before they could drink it or use it in food preparation so any and all bacteria would be killed. Learning basic first aid was also high on the list, after all it didn't matter how much medication and other medical equipment they found if no one knew how to apply it or when. They also needed to be given a crash course in which part of the nature around them were edible and which were poisonous/venomous, and also what could be used as medicine when the pre-made stuff ran out. The latter part would be up to Rime and probably with the assistance of Daryl.

Buffy needed to take it slowly though, if she tried to force the issue many of them would guaranteed balk and that would make things worse. So she'd begun with hand-to-hand combat and sword practise, mainly with Andrea and Amy but Daryl had been paying attention as well, even if he didn't participate. It had paid off for the two blonde sisters as it had literally given them an edge during the walker attack on the Quarry Camp, but now she needed to step it up and get the others involved.

Meanwhile Rime had been working with Carol and Jacqui on the medical side of things, and she was making progress. As the wife of an abusive man Carol had practise with patching herself up after Ed's violent episodes, and as such knew more about first aid than Jacqui. As terrible as the reason behind the knowledge was it would come in useful as the world descended even more into chaos, and things became more critical. Medical know-how would soon be worth more than gold had been worth Before.

When they left the Quarry Camp they had driven off in five vehicles: Buffy's Jeep, which she drove and with Rime and Jacqui as passengers; Rick drove the station wagon with Lori and Carl as the passengers; Dale drove his RV with Glenn in the passenger seat, Jim was bundled up in the back with Andrea and Amy as his caretakers; Shane drove a Jeep with T-Dog beside him and Carol and her daughter in the backseat; and Daryl drove his brother's motorcycle.

On the 63rd day after the outbreak they arrived at the CDC hoping there would be someone there who had answers, particularly as Jim had succumbed to the virus on the way there. They needed a cure. A vaccine. A plan. A backup solution. _Something_. However they had been disappointed; the only person left in the entire building had been a Dr. Jenner who was rather unhelpful in that regard. He did however allow them to eat, shower, and stay for the night in real beds. All of which had been greeted with great enthusiasm; none of them had had a shower in longer than any of them wanted to think about, let alone remember.

In truth Buffy appreciated the shower more than she appreciated the food and even the burning hot coffee. She hated to feel unclean, especially when the uncleanliness was a result of blood, gore, and/or (vampire) dust. Given the sudden appearance of a new kind of walking dead and she'd had two months worth of layers upon layers of both blood and gore, even if she was blissfully free of vampire dust. It was a notion shared by pretty much everyone.

According to Dr. Jenner there was no cure, he was the only surviving scientist left at the CDC as the others had either fled or opted out, and he had lost contact with the outside world nearly a month before they arrived. As of the last transmission he had received there were no scientific breakthroughs regarding the walkers, or how to avoid ending up as one of them once dead. He gave them a technical explanation of how the virus worked once a person was already dying, but he couldn't help them. In the end they'd had to break themselves out of the building as it had gone into lockdown in preparation for an inbuilt self-destruction program to prevent the spread of whatever they had been studying inside the heavily fortified laboratories.

Closed and heavily armed doors, even the enhanced ones secure buildings like the CDC had, was no match for a Slayer - especially a determined one. Even amid the panic the countdown had caused it caused a lot of staring when she simply hit the reinforced window a couple of times with a closed fist before it shattered into a thousand pieces.

There hadn't been time for the group to contemplate the contradiction of a woman Buffy's size being able to break through bulletproof glass, instead they had focused on running out of the fortified building and as far away as they could get before it blew. For once the walkers had not been a priority, although thankfully there hadn't been any in the vicinity, and they had made it over to the cars so they had some cover from the explosion.

This time they managed to get away from the disaster with only one voluntary loss, as Jacqui chose to stay behind with Dr. Edwin Jenner as the Center for Disease Control was destroyed for safety reasons as decided pre-apocalypse by whoever had been in charge of deciding such things. It meant that in the last few days they had lost another two people and their little group were now down to 14.

The day after a decision was made to reduce the number of vehicles as there was too little fuel already and they didn't need that many cars anyways. After some back and forth it was decided to keep the RV until they could find another one in better condition to switch it out with. Dale would drive it, and Glenn, Andrea, Amy, and Shane would ride with him. T-Dog would join the Grimes family in the Station Wagon, while Carol and Sophia would join Buffy and Rime in the Jeep. Daryl would ride ahead on the motorbike, something Buffy was little jealous of as she missed her own bike. Unfortunately it had been totaled the year before in a surreal car chase to catch up with a demon in a fancy sports car. It had ended in a fiery crash which only Buffy had gotten away from alive, even if her unconscious body had had to be carried away from the scene.

They drove a safe distance away from the burning building so as to avoid the herds of walkers who had no doubt been attracted by the loud explosions and were ambling their way there. Once their sparse belongings had been moved and repacked into the correct cars they had taken a vote and then just began driving in the direction which most people wanted to go.


	8. The Truth Hurts

This chapter takes place during TWD episode "What Lies Ahead" (02x01).

This is the expanded version of the 'Watch the Fall of Humanity' chapter 12 (Fight). This story is now complete, but there will be a sequel which will loosely follow season two.

Thank you to all those who have left reviews and/or followed this story.

Two days after leaving the burning wreckage of the CDC behind, the caravan was driving on the highway, mostly without having to dodge stalled cars and wreckages, when they reached yet another large car graveyard, and Dale's RV broke down in a small discharge of steam about one third of the way into it. In the front of their small procession Daryl got off of his motorbike, and went back to check on what the problem was before going off to see if there was anything in the cars littering the road they could salvage. At the back of the convoy everyone in the last two cars got out as well. Buffy called everyone to her and they gathered in a loose half-circle in front of her after she had a short conversation with Dale regarding the status of his RV.

"The radiator hose on Dale's RV has broken down again. While he and Glenn tries to fix it the rest of us will be going through the cars to see if there's anything salvageable. The priorities are water, dry food, canned goods, medicine, and weapons. Bladed weaponry, crossbows with arrows and bolts, anything blunt that can be used to kill walkers are the most important. However if you find guns and ammunition then take those as well. Lighters, lighter fluid, matches, and similar things are a priority as well. Candles. preferably not scented ones; we don't want unwanted attention. "

Before she got the chance to continue with her impromptu orders, T-Dog cut in. "We can siphon fuel from the cars." Buffy nodded, it was a good idea.

"Of course, fuel is also in short supply and we need to get it when we have opportunity. Remember to mark the fuel tanks so we know if it's gas or diesel, and store them in the appropriate cars." T-Dog gave her a nod back and then enlisted Shane and Andrea to help him.

"Remember to pair up and always keep your buddy in sight. Make sure that one of you is keeping watch over the other if you need to do something where you can't do it yourself, and that you have a knife or sword ready to use at all times. You never know if there's a lurker or fifty somewhere. Make sure that you check under the cars for crawlers. It only takes a few seconds of inattentiveness to get bitten or scratched."

She looked over the group making sure she made eye contact, and then added, "If you find something you want or need you may take it, but keep in mind that we have very limited storage space."

Then Lori added her two cents, "Are soap, toothpaste, and deodorant on the priority list?"

"Yes, but it's below the things I already mentioned." Buffy got nods and affirmative replies from everyone and they split into teams. They were being amazingly cooperative, but in her experience most people wanted someone to tell them what to do. If for no other reason than so they had someone else to blame later when things went wrong. This was especially true in a crisis, and this definitely counted as that.

Dale and Glenn were obviously a team as they worked on the RV. T-Dog, Shane, and Andrea was a second as they went in search for fuel. Rime joined Carol and Sophia in scavenging, while the Grimes family did the same. Which left her with Amy and Daryl. Unknown to everyone else both Buffy and Rime had their bottomless backpacks and they had every intention to fill them up with as much as they could.

The three groups who were designated to go and scavenge returned to the cars to get bags and backpacks to carry their loot in. As Buffy's little group walked away she saw Dale in her peripheral view as he climbed on top of the RV to keep watch while Glenn worked on the engine, and she nodded to herself in approval. A high vantage point was important, especially when there were so many obstacles everywhere.

Over the next hour she managed to find a number of water bottles; some of them were even still sealed, but most of them had been opened and had various amounts of water in them. She poured what she could into the largest bottles but threw the smaller and empty ones in her bag as well when Amy and Daryl were looking elsewhere. The search also yielded a few dozen cans of food, several first aid kits, and various weapons, but very few bullets. Which was unsurprising since there were actual dead corpses in some of the cars and the rest were empty of any kind of human presence - alive or undead. Meaning the rest of the occupants had either gotten up and shambled away or they had driven away.

As far as she could hear from the other groups their searches were turning up pretty much the same thing. Except for one thing; Shane found a van with Lipsey Mountain Spring Water printed on the side almost right next to where the RV had broken down. It had water tanks meant for office water coolers, which brought up the question should they take what they could fit into the cars and the RV, or simply take the entire van? A quick debate and it was decided to wait and see how much supplies the rest of the search turned up and then make a decision when they knew how much space they had left, if any.

Nearly an hour later, as Buffy was head first into the trunk of a car trying to find something useful, she suddenly heard the tell-tale sound of shuffling feet in the distance and abruptly pulled her head and upper body back out. Turning her head quickly around in all directions to pin down where the sound was coming from, she saw them in the distance towards the back of the cars behind the convoy.

"Daryl, Amy." Buffy said in a low voice. "We have incoming walkers behind us." Inwardly she cursed at herself for not having come up with a plan for situations like this yet, and added it to her already long mental list of things she needed to get done _yesterday_. "Move slowly towards the Grimes' and get them to come over here." Movement, and especially abrupt movement, got the walkers attention almost as fast as loud noises.

The small family were only four-five cars ahead of them and to the right. As they moved intently towards the other group, Amy in the front and Daryl in between the twenty-something woman and Buffy trying to keep a watchful eye over both of them, Buffy signaled to Shane, as he had noticed the movement from their part of the highway, to get T-Dog and Andrea and do the same. As soon as everyone were close enough for her not to raise her voice she said, "There's a medium sized group of walkers headed straight for us. We have two choices; hide and and hope for them to pass without noticing us, which is highly unlikely, or we can hide most of the group and then those of us who can fight can carefully pick off the herd from the sides."

Horrified looks met her options and angry retorts came predictably from Andrea, Lori, and Shane. "No, listen to me. That herd is going to find living, breathing human beings sooner or later, and when they do they'll eat them alive. If we kill them now it will save someone else's life later."

What she didn't say was that she could've killed them all on her own easily, but no one here would have believed that and the world ending didn't unjustify the need for her to be secret identity girl. Well, part of the secret was already out, but there was no need to make them ask more questions she didn't want to answer. The last thing she needed was for them to freak out on her. "I'm going out in the open. Choose if you want to fight or if you want to go inside one of the cars for safety, but do it quickly because when I go out there I'll make sure to attract them."

Unsurprisingly a hissing argument erupted, but she shot it down fast; they didn't have time for everyone to say their piece. In the end Lori decided that she and Carl would hide inside a car since they were too far from the RV, and Amy, not really being a fighter either despite her increasing skill with a sword, chose a nearby car and hid inside. Everyone else took a good hold of their best sword, katana, or knife, and then checked that they had a back-up gun and extra ammunition, and then Buffy split them into teams of two; her and Daryl, T-Dog and Shane, and Rick and Andrea.

Rick and Andrea were given the task of getting Glenn, Carol, Sophia, and Rime into the RV were they would be relatively safe, and then they were to guard it so none of the walking dead could enter it or even try something unfortunate. Dale was safe on the roof as long as he didn't draw attention to himself, preferably by getting down on his stomach so he wouldn't be visible to the hungry corpses and thereby drawing attention to the vehicle, and it would've taken too long to get him down from there and inside. Not to mention that the conversation and movement would've drawn the attention of the walkers to them too soon.

Buffy and Daryl would take the left side and take cover between the cars on that side to pick off the walkers who came close enough, preferably without being seen by the rest of the approaching herd, while T-Dog and Shane would do the same on the other side. Once they had downed enough to thin the herd Buffy would go out in the open and the rest of the fighters would cover her blindspots.

Buffy gave the signal and the three duo's split up to get to their appointed tasks. She and Daryl moved quickly and silently towards some cars which would give them shelter, and would also serve as a shield against the rest of the walkers. When they had gotten into position she took note of how far Rick and Andrea had gotten in getting the others into the van. All she saw of Glenn was his back as he was carefully opening the door to the RV. Fifteen feet away Rick and Andrea were collecting the last three members of their group and shepherding them towards the RV while trying to keep out of sight from the coming corpses.

The walkers were still far enough away that they hadn't noticed the movement up ahead, but that wouldn't last. She met Daryl's eyes, took in his dirty face, and the determination in his blue eyes. She nodded at him before she walked in a crouch to the back of the car so she could get a better view of when the walkers would arrive at their temporary shelter. It also gave her a direct line of sight to Rime, Carol, and her pre-teen daugther around the back of the car she was crouching on the side of. On the right side of her she saw as the three of them rounded the front of the RV so they could enter it; Rick was keeping guard on the other side of them. Andrea was bringing up the rear, holding the short sword Buffy had given her in both hands and determinedly keeping watch to both sides and intermittently behind herself.

A quick survey of the left side showed her that T-Dog and Shane were in place behind a station wagon, and that Shane was clearly upset about something. T-Dog had his eyes on the oncoming walkers, and kept changing his grip on the baseball bat he must've found in one of the cars they'd been searching earlier. It had dried blood on the upper part so it had evidently been used as a defense against the walkers before.

Then the walkers had drawn up to them and Buffy allowed them to keep shuffling past her on the other side of the car. One, two, three… Men, women, teenagers, but thankfully no children. Most of them wore clothing, a few even had jackets, and some of them were topless. When she got to eighteen she nodded to Daryl and he moved carefully to the front of the car while she got up from her crouch. Number twenty-one got the top half of her head sliced off with Buffy's Scythe, and another lost most of its head on the downswing. In her peripheral view she saw Daryl stab one in the eye, before quickly moving on to the next and stabbing that one in the eye as well.

The next ten minutes or so consisted mostly of her stabbing and chopping the head off of the walkers, with kicks and punches thrown in here and there if any of them came to close. All the while she was careful to keep Daryl in her sight in case he needed help, and she noted he was doing the same with her, but he was thankfully holding his own. On the other side of the road T-Dog and Shane were fighting back to back with Rick and Andrea. The animosity between Shane and Rick seemed to have been temporarily forgotten as the heat of the battle appeared to have caused old instincts to flare up while they fought for everyone's lives.

Absently Buffy noticed that Andrea's stance had improved a little, as had her grip and handling of the short sword. Dale was still on the roof and had thankfully had the foresight to get down low so he would be less of a target, but he had edged closer to the boundary of the roof so he could see the fight below. The rest of the group had luckily chosen to stay inside the RV, and for one reason or another were keeping both quiet and out of sight. Buffy suspected Rime's influence in those particular decisions; she could be very reasonable in her explanations and demands when she wanted someone to do something. Buffy had her own personal experiences with those after years of travelling on and off with the woman.

Eventually there were only a few walkers left and she whistled sharply to get their attention. They groaned in greeting and moved towards her straight away. She smiled and walked over while spinning the Scythe from one hand and over to the other, before returning it to her right hand. The impromptu show was both to stretch her hands and fingers but also to make sure the undead didn't lose interest in her and veer off towards the other group of fighters. When she was about seven feet away from the the closest walker she swung her favorite weapon in an arch from the ground and up, slicing the walker's head off from the lower left side of its head and vertically upwards. The next two had the top of their head cut off. The last one had its head cut off from the right side and down on the left side.

Buffy took in the sight of the five people who had chosen to fight alongside her against the oncoming herd, she visually checked them over for bites, scratches, and other wounds, but other than what she assumed to be dead man's blood by it scent they came across as unharmed as far as she could see and smell.

Turning towards her fighting buddy, she asked, "Are you hurt?" Daryl gave a gruff negative answer as he was already cleaning the blade of his knife with the cloth he kept on him at all times.

She turned towards the other four and rephrased her question a little. "Are any of you hurt in any way?" To her relief she got the negative replies she had been hoping for from everyone, but Shane went on a tirade asking her what she'd been thinking engaging a herd of all things. Before he could get into a full rant he was cut off by Dale. Who to everyone's surprise actually defended Buffy's decision.

Buffy smiled at the older man; his defense of her actions was very much appreciated, especially since he didn't approve of violence in general. However there was still more work to be done.

"We need to check the perimeter before we relax, there can still be lurkers or crawlers in between the cars. Stragglers, too."

"We need ta check the bodies, too." The last came from Daryl, who had come up beside her after finishing cleaning his knife and putting it back in its sheath. His eyes met hers and seemed to say ' _you shouldn't have been able to do that_ '. She hoped her own eyes telegraphed ' _don't ask_ ' back to him. But it was only a question of time before he or someone else would demand answers. She needed to tone down her Slayer-ness to avoid more suspicion.

After even more arguments from Shane, all of which were shot down by Buffy and Daryl, they split back up into the pairs from earlier and swept the area. There turned out to be five lurkers, one crawler, and three stragglers; all met their permanent end on something sharp and shiny or something blunt.

Afterwards Lori, Carl, and Amy were collected from the cars up ahead and brought back to the RV. Glenn, Rime, Carol, and Sophia came out of the van and they ended up having an impromptu council meeting right then and there. Just as the quarrel was about to reach shouting levels Buffy interceded again.

"Which part of ' _the walkers are attracted to loud noises_ ' make you people think a shouting match is a great idea when we're out in the open, especially when we've just had to kill off a herd? For all we know there could be even more stragglers just around the corner."

The glares sent her way at that from Shane, Lori, and Andrea would've been impressive if she hadn't spent nearly two decades being threatened by various demons and vampires, all of which were much more dangerous than an unstable former police officer and two barely trained women. All their effort gained them was a raised eyebrow.

"Listen up, all of you." Buffy said as she raised her voice so everyone could hear her. "Someone has to kill the roaming herds. If we let them keep walking they're going to find some other survivors, and chances are they're going to eat them. _Alive_. While they're begging for mercy, for their lives, for the lives of their fellow survivors." The Slayer looked each of them in the eyes. "Think of the number of people in Atlanta before the infection began. Think of the number of people of Georgia. Think about the number of people in the United States. Or the number of people across the north border to Canada or the south border to Mexico."

Suddenly there were a lot of indrawn breaths and pale faces, and wide eyes looking back at her at the implications. "I'll admit that I don't know what the actual numbers were, but I'm sure they were really high. As in the millions. There were a lot of large cities in America, and the vast majority of the people there have no doubt been turned into walkers. When they can't find living people in the cities anymore they're going to leave and try their luck in the countryside. Granted the military bombed many of the major cities while they still could, but I doubt it made much of a dent in the long run."

Buffy took a deep breath and continued, "Think about your favorite TV show and how many viewers it had each week. Chances are it was in the millions as well, and the vast majority of them are probably dead now. Probably walking around trying to find someone to eat. The same goes for the actors on the TV shows and in your favorite movies, and everyone who worked with them. Think about the insanity of Black Friday and the Christmas rush and all the people who came out of the woodwork to participate. So far the herds have been relatively small, but the small herds are going to meet up with other small herds and make bigger ones. Eventually they're going to be too big for anyone to survive meeting them."

The silence at Buffy spelling out how serious their problems really were, and how much worse they were going to get, was unnerving. But she pressed on now that she had their full attention. They _needed_ to understand.

"Killing off the small herds we meet along the way is probably going to have even less impact on things than the bombs in the big cities, but we have to do something. As it is it will take decades or longer to make a proper dent in the undead population." Buffy cast around for another way to try and get the message through to these people.

"Imagine living in some palisaded area somewhere and having a gigantic herd surround the entire place and every single one of them pressing in from all sides with no chance of escape for you or anyone else. There's nowhere to go and it's only a matter of time before the wall, fence, or other barriers are torn down by the pure mass of corpses pressing in."

"Stop it! We get it, please stop. Stop!" Tears were streaming down Carol's cheeks and she looked terrified. She was holding both of her hands over her daughter's ears, just like Lori were holding her hands over Carl's ears. Lori herself wasn't crying, but she looked just as horrified as everyone else.

"I'm not trying to scare you, well, maybe a little. But you need to understand what we're really up against. This is why I want everyone to learn how to fight, why I want to kill all the walkers we come across. If we're going to have a chance to rebuild, we need to get rid of the walkers. We need to find somewhere to fortify, somewhere we can grow our own food because scavenging will only be possible for so long. Somewhere with farm animals so we can get meat and dairy products, a large forest for hunting wild animals and finding mushrooms, berries, apples, and such. Somewhere not far from the ocean or a lake or something with fish for a more varied diet… We need horses for transportation because there's only so much gas and diesel and oil, and the cars themselves are not going to run forever either."

Buffy took another deep breath after her little babble fest. It felt good to get all of that off her chest. At least now they would keep thinking about it, and try to keep an eye out for what she had said. They might not like her or her methods, but they were interested in surviving.

"Everyone also need to learn the basics of the various skills needed to keep us alive. That means everyone needs to learn how to track, hunt, do basic first aid, field dress whatever game you manage to kill, learn how to fish, prepare the animal for eating, make a proper fire. You all have to learn how to use the different weapons we have, how to treat them before and after use. You need to stop treating Daryl like an outcast. He has more survival skills by himself than almost the entire group put together, and he'll be the one to teach you the hunting part so at least be civil to him. Because if I have to chose between him and one of you I'll chose him and Rime and let the rest of you rot."

Their expressions managed to get even more horrified somehow, while Daryl's eyes got more intense as he looked her, but they didn't know she didn't mean it. Yes, Daryl was worth more than the vast majority of the group, but she wouldn't leave them behind. She was the Slayer; it was her job to protect the weak and defenseless, but it didn't mean she had to coddle them. Nor did it mean that they were necessarily all that defenseless either. They needed a swift kick to the backside and hopefully this would suffice to get them to cooperate better.

"Just, please think about it. Really think about the consequences of what we're facing right now, and what we're going to face in the future. And how we're going to survive so we actually _have_ a future."

When they finally went to bed that night, right there on the congested highway, it was with heavy thoughts on their minds.


End file.
